Dictionary

Tiresias en · PROPN

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Τειρεσίας (Teiresías).

Meanings

1. (Greek) A long-lived blind soothsayer who participated over seven generations in the legendary history of (the Greek city) Thebes, noted also for being transformed into a woman for seven years, so being symbolic of androgyny.
   • […]somewhere a ship's radio was blaring out the latest jazz-hit to reach Alexandria: Old Tiresias / No one half so breezy as, / Half so free and easy as / Old Tiresias. 1958, Lawrence Durrell, Balthazar, page 35:
   • The myth associated with how Tiresias became a hermaphrodite reveals much about relations between the sexes. 2004, Leonard Shlain, Sex, Time, and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution, page 255:

Forms

Relateds

Tiresian

Translations (6)

fr Tirésias (A long-lived blind soothsayer) · es Tiresias (A long-lived blind soothsayer) · hy Թիրեսիաս (A long-lived blind soothsayer) · grc Τειρεσίας (A long-lived blind soothsayer) · ca Tirèsias (A long-lived blind soothsayer) · ca Tirèsies (A long-lived blind soothsayer)